


Freesia

by A_Hollow_Descent



Category: Octopath Traveler (Video Game)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Confessions, Hanahaki Disease, Idiots in Love, Love/Hate, M/M, The Language of Flowers, Tsunderes, hanahaki, i completely missed the point of hanahaki, therion is bad at expressing his feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-17
Updated: 2018-08-17
Packaged: 2019-06-28 13:11:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,447
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15707910
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/A_Hollow_Descent/pseuds/A_Hollow_Descent
Summary: "Freesias are known to symbolize innocence, thoughtfulness, trust, friendship and sweetness." The passage in the book said. There was a bunch of people who fit that description, but only one of the names stood out to him.





	Freesia

**Author's Note:**

> Someone on twitter mentioned that Alfion would be a good match with hanahaki and my mind just exploded with good ideas. Note: Hanahaki is commonplace, and is treated causally with medicine instead of surgery.

They were on the road yet again, walking down a dirt path to gods know where. Therion was trailing a bit farther from the other travelers, watching them all go and chat with each other.

He coughed into his hand. It wasn’t just a little cough, he felt something out come out of his mouth. Bringing his hand away, he saw a few yellow flower petals in his hand. He tossed the petals behind his back and kept walking. He’s been coughing petals for the week, but paid no attention to it.

Same day, just a little bit from sunset, Therion had coughed up petals again. This time there was someone who saw. Unfortunately it was Tressa, who happened to be walking behind him at the time.

“Woah, Therion.” She laughed, looking over his shoulder. “I didn’t know you kept flowers in your mouth.” 

Tressa quickly made her way in front of him and got a good look at the flowers he held. “Hanahaki huh? I hope it goes well. Knowing you, I think you’d rather die than confess your feelings to anyone. If you get too sick, I bet Alfyn has some medicine for hanahaki.”

“I’m not sick at all.” Therion huffed, throwing the petals behind him. “You’re overthinking it.”

“Oh, so you just keep petals in your hand?” She joked, walking ahead of him. “Sure ya do.”

He watched her go and catch up with the other ladies in the group, probably going on and telling them all about Therion having hanahaki. As much as he’d like to deny it, these were the first symptoms of the illness. Sure, he had it before, everyone did at one point. It came with growing up and falling in love for the first time. Easily curable with medicine if you got too sick.

This is the second time he’s had it, and he doesn’t even know who he’s coughing up flowers for.

“Therion.” Cyrus spoke up, now walking beside him. “Mind if I have a few words with you?”

“What do you want?” He said, his mind preoccupied.

“I heard you have hanahaki and I wanted to give you some advice.” He explained. “Just a small explanation on the dangers of it and what you should do.”

“I don’t need an explanation. I already know plenty. You fall in love, you start to cough up petals, then flowers, then flowers with blood, then you die.” Therion told him. “You can cure it with medicine but your feelings for that person will disappear.”

“Right. That’s all correct.” Cyrus agreed. “But did you know that the flowers actually mean something? Their meaning is supposed to correlate with your loved one’s personality.”

“That’s nice but it doesn’t matter to me.” He sighed. “I’m going to take some medicine for it anyways, love and other stuff like that just gets in the way of thieving.”

“Are you sure about that?” Cyrus asked him.

“Huh?” 

“Are you sure you want to just let go of your feelings like that? What if the person likes you back?” He brought up. “You could never like them back and would break their heart.”

“Yeah, I’m sure.” Therion confirmed. “What do you know about love anyways?”

“I’ll have you know I’ve had my fair share of experience with love.” Cyrus defended himself.

“Really? The man who has women fall for him left and right but doesn’t even know it has experience with love?” Therion teased him. “Amazing.”

“Believe it or not.” Cyrus moved on, bringing out a tome from his pack of books. “Here. It’s a flower encyclopedia, I thought it would come of use for your little hanahaki malady.” 

Therion took the book from the taller man, feeling the weight of the book bring him down. He has no use for this, but maybe he would flip through it later tonight. He had to admit, he wanted to find out who he had feelings for. 

By the time night fell and they were at the inn, everyone in their group had found out Therion has hanahaki, thanks to Tressa and her big mouth. They all tried to comfort him about it in their own ways.

Cyrus urged him to read the book and to reevaluated his choice of dealing with it. Ophilia told him that what he was feeling was normal and he should pursue his love. Tressa continued to tease him, a poor attempt to bring his spirits up. H’aanit and Primrose both told him stories of their hanahaki experiences, though it didn’t help, as it both ended with them taking the medicine. Olberic came by with a story of his own too, and he actually got together with the person he loved, only for them to break up a couple months later. 

“A sad tale.” Was all Therion had to say. They all had good intentions, he knew that, but all they did was make him want to get rid of this as soon as possible. It was starting to become too troublesome for him to deal with.

Therion sat at the foot his bed, staring down at the book on his lap. He thought about who the person he loved could be, he didn’t really know how to read his own feelings, so it was a mystery who he could be loving.

Could it be Cyrus? Cyrus’ oblivious flirting was something that brought people in, not to mention his good looks. 

There was also Ophilia to consider, he found her embarrassed reactions to be rather cute and funny. Though a pure and holy woman like her might not be the best choice for someone like him.

He could only read the book to find out. He was about to flip through it when a knock on his door came. Alfyn poked his head in, “Hey there Therion. Can I come in?”

Therion quickly hid the book behind him. “Your head is already in here, you might as well bring your entire body in with you.”

Alfyn came in, closed the door behind him, and plopped down on the bed beside Therion. “So, I heard you have hanahaki.”

“Are you going to try and comfort me too?” Therion asked. “I don’t need your sympathy.”

“I’m just here to bring up an offer.” The apothecary brought up. “I have a salve for hanahaki, but I won’t give it to you just yet.”

“Why not? Are withholding healthcare from me?” Therion asked. “That’s unlike you Alfyn.”

“No, wait, hear me out!” Alfyn raised his hands in defence. “I want to make sure you take it without any regrets. You are aware what it’ll do to you right?”

“Yeah, I know. It’s going to take away my feelings for that person. What of it?” 

“Right, so you might go and take it, find out the person loved you back, but you can’t love them back because you took the medicine and now feel nothing for them.” Alfyn told him. “So it’s a lose-lose for the two of you.”

“I already heard it this lecture from Cyrus, I don’t need to hear it from you too.” Therion told him. “Just cut to the chase.”

“Alright, alright.” He sighed, sitting up straight. “I want you to confess to the person, and if they reject you, then you can take the medicine. No lying either.”

“I’d rather die.” Therion refused.

“Therion…” Alfyn trailed off, a slight tinge of pain in his eyes. “Well, you have my offer. I’ll still fix you up if your status gets significantly worse though.”

“Like, if I actually start dying?”

“Yeah.” He confirmed, getting up from the bed and stretching. “Well, I hope this doesn’t affect you a lot. Make the right choice okay?” 

“...”

“Well, I’ll see you tomorrow. See ya Therion.” And with that he was gone. He wished he tried to comfort him instead of give him a choice.

“...There’s no way in hell I’m actually going to confess to someone.” He grunted, hauling the heavy book onto his lap again. “Now, to see who is the unlucky person I love…”

Looking over a few pages of flowers, he tried to recall what the petals looked like. They were small, yellow and they were kinda curled in at the tips. Maybe they were part of a rose? Or maybe a lily? Those felt wrong though. 

While flipping through the book, he felt another cough coming up. He hacked into his hand, facing away from the book and feeling something bigger fall into his hand. A whole flower. Picking it up with his other hand, he examined the singular flower he coughed up. It was yellow, with little lily looking flowers coming from the stem.

“Well, now I have a reference. Let’s find out what this is…” Therion resumed his skimming. He compared the flower with the ones illustrated in the book.

The sky had turned from bright red to black when he found it.

“A freesia.” He said, placing the flower beside the drawing. They matched each other. He read out the meaning of it. “The freesia has several meanings, such as innocence, thoughtfulness, friendship and sweetness. But one of the biggest one is trust.”

He could think of a few people with that description, Ophilia, Tressa, Alfyn, even Cordelia fit. But he was sure it wasn’t her. He kept on reading the article, needing to learn more about this flower to make sure he had the people correct.

“Color symbolism could also be used, red for passion, pink for motherly love, and yellow for joy and renewal.” Since he has yellow freesias coming out of his mouth, he could add joy and renewal to that mental list of traits.

"So, who’s the person that I trust with these traits?” Therion mused. “I don’t trust a lot of people, but Alfyn…”

He was about list other people but that one name clicked with him. 

“Alfyn…” He repeated his name. “I love… Alfyn?”

He felt his face burn just by saying those words. He hid his face in his scarf and tried to make sense of what he was feeling. There was no way he could love a doofus like Alfyn! 

Alfyn with his foolish optimistic personality, his thoughtfulness, his beautiful joyful smile he would regularly show him… Therion felt his heart pound in his chest. Okay, so maybe there was a chance he was in love with Alfyn.

It would explain his strange attachment to the apothecary.

But there was no way he would be able to confess his feelings. Again, he’d rather die than confess. Closing up the book and throwing the whole flower out the window, he laid in bed and tried to get Alfyn out of his head.

There was no way a guy like Alfyn would fall for a dirty thief like him. The next morning Cyrus came by. “Morning Therion! I hope my book helped you in some sort of way.”

“I guess…” He admitted, handing it to the scholar. “Here, you can have it back.”

“...I’ll support you, no matter what solution you choose.” He said, and walked away. It was a strange thing for him to say, but Therion paid no mind to that.

“SOOOOOoooooo…” A bubbly voice perked up. Tressa wrapped her arm around the thief’s shoulder. “Who do you like?”

“Easy there Tressa.” He pushed her away. “What makes you think I’m going to tell you?”

“Aww, you know….” She winked. “Just a hunch.”

“Well, your hunch is wrong.” He said matter-of-factly. 

“Hmph.” She huffed and went on her way. “Doesn’t matter if you won’t tell me, I still know who it is…” Wink wonk.

“What a creepy kid.” He sniffed.

“Hey Therion!” Alfyn comes in, making a beeline towards hi,. “How goes the hanahaki?”

Therion freezes for a minute thinking,  _ oh no, the last person I wanna see right now. _ Before Alfyn got any closer to him, he backs away, making sure to keep more than an arm’s length distance from him.

“It’s fine.” He said, not looking directly at him. “Don’t worry.”

“Are you okay?” Alfyn stepped in closer. “Your face is kinda red.”

Therion pulled up his scarf, taking a step back everytime Alfyn got closer, “I’m fine, I don’t know what your talking about, leave me alone.” He excused himself, soon walking away from the apothecary entirely. But Alfyn wouldn’t have any of that.

“Hey, why are you walking away? Was it something I said?” He called out to the thief, following him.

“N-no! Just leave me alone!” Therion yelled, breaking into a sprint, hitting a table on the way out. As much as this pains him, he couldn’t face Alfyn at the moment. It was too much for him to handle. He felt his chest ache just by looking at him.

He made it a fair distance away from the town. Leaning against a tree, he took a moment to catch his breath and looked back at the town. His tired pants soon turned into heaves, and the violent coughing began. Therion grasped his chest as he coughed into his hand, a low burning sensation coming up his throat.

Pulling away from his cough attack, a singular flower laid in his hand. Again, a freesia. Some of the yellow petals were turning orange, and that’s when he saw the blood under the flower. He still stood by his previous statement, he would rather die than confess his feelings for Alfyn. Tossing the flower to the side and wiping the blood off on his pants, Therion sild down and just sat at the base of the tree.

...Would he rather die?

There was a slight chance that the apothecary would return his feelings, but there was no way to make sure without embarrassing himself. No way in hell is he going to ask how Alfyn feels about him. Yes, the best thing to do is enduring the illness as long as possible. 

“I wish I didn’t have these feelings…” He mused, tracing out shapes in the sand. “Makes everything so messy and bitter…”

 

Therion did nothing about his illness for the past month and said nothing about it as well, no matter how much his fellow travelers pestered him. If any of them asked all he would say was, “I’m working on it. Don’t worry about me.” 

Alfyn was a different story. If he would ask how Therion was doing, he would just give him a side glance and a shrug. He would rarely give him a proper response. As cold as it was, it was one of the only ways to get the taller man off his back. Giving Therion a forlorn stare, he left him alone most of the time. 

Therion’s mind insisted that this was for the best, but his heart never told lies. Deep inside, he wanted him to stay. Ask him what’s wrong. Show some concern for how he was acting. In the end, his pitiful wishes stayed bottled up inside him.

From the back of the group, he would watch Alfyn show his beautiful smile to the other travelers and townspeople. Again and again he would tell himself that this was for the best, he wouldn’t have to deal with this pain after Alfyn is forced to give him the medicine. He was right, feelings like this only got in the way.

But the flowers he was hacking up by the day could fill a bouquet. If anyone wanted a bouquet of bloodstained freesias.

Today also wasn’t an exception, while following the group around a new town, he found himself hunched over in an alley. Handfuls of bloody freesias fell to the ground. He wheezed, looking down at the ruined flowers he left. The disease was reaching its final stages.

All this pain would disappear when Alfyn caves in and gives him that medicine. He just needs him to see that he’s slowly dying. For now, he’s going to go back to the group.

“Pteh.” He spat out the blood from his mouth. “Disgusting.”

“I agree.” A familiar voice rang out. “That’s a nasty amount of flowers comin’ out of you Therion.”

Looking over his shoulder, he saw Alfyn standing in the entrance of the alley, arms crossed. He never looked any more intimidating. “Care to explain?” He demanded, narrowing his eyes at the thief.

“Yeah I’ll explain.” Therion said, walking past him. “It’s none of your business, that’s what it is. Leave me alone.”

Alfyn whirled around, grabbing Therion by his shoulder. “I won’t take that for an answer. We need to talk. Now.”

He wasn’t going to get out of this so easily.

“H-hey! Don’t grab me so suddenly, let go!” Therion protested, but Alfyn didn’t listen to a thing he said. Alfyn pulled him through the streets, no doubt getting strange looks from the people in the town. They stopped in front of a large house with a sign for the inn hanging from it. 

Alfyn went in, still with an iron grip on Therion. “Hey guys! Found Therion, just going to talk to him alone for a moment.”

“Alright. Have fun.” Primrose said, not focusing on them.

“Hey, wait, are you guys going to do anything about him or am I just gonna…?” Therion asked, being dragged into one of the rooms. No one paid attention to him, maybe this really was what he deserved for treating Alfyn so badly these past few weeks.

Closing the door behind him, Alfyn finally let go of Therion. 

“What the hell was that for?” Huffed Therion.

“Sorry. You know I had to do this.” Alfyn apologized, leaning on the door. “Considering how you’ve been acting towards me for the past few weeks, this was the only way to get you to actually talk with me.”

“Hmph.” Therion took a seat on the bed. “Whatever, just make it quick. I don’t want to waste any more time with you. ”

Alfyn stared down at the floorboards, kicking around dirt on the ground. “Therion. You haven’t taken what I said to heart, have you? Didn’t confess at all huh?”

“Nope. As I said, I’d rather die.” Therion grunted, crossing his arms and narrowing his eyes. “It’s too late for me to confess, so just give me the medicine and we can get this behind us.”

“You’re a stubborn one aren’t you. But considering how far the illness progressed, I have no choice but to give you the medicine.” Alfyn sighed, reaching into his satchel. He brought out a small vial filled with a blue liquid. “Before I give you this, there’s one thing I want to ask.”

“What?” Therion said.

“Who’s the person that you loved?” Alfyn inquired. “I won’t tell them, I just wanted to know who it was.”

“Eh?! Why would I tell you that?” The shorter man recoiled.

“I just wanted to know who it was, that’s all.” Alfyn said, hands up in defence, eyes trailing off somewhere else.

“But why?” Therion pressured him.

“W-why? Uhm, I wanted to make sure… it was me or not.” The apothecary admitted, twiddling his thumbs.

“Wait, Alfyn, are you saying that you  _ wanted _ me to like you?” Therion pointed out. 

“Well, yeah, cause you know. I wanted to know if you liked me back… ‘Casue I love you.” He confessed, giving him a coy smile. 

“Wh-what?” Therion stammered, feeling a blush coming onto his face. Alfyn loved him back. “You love me?”

“Yeah, I do. It’s really embarrassing to say. But I understand if you don’t like me, considering how you have been treating me these past few weeks. Hanahaki is born out of unrequited love after all.” Alfyn said, Therion stayed silent and stared at his feet. So, Alfyn was also suffering from the same thing... One of them had to say something.

“Well, what do you think about me?” The taller man asked.

“I, eugh, I guess I do too…” The thief muttered, hiding his face in his scarf, not looking the apothecary in the eye. Judging from the warmth coming from his face, he must’ve been blushing really hard. 

Alfyn came forwards and grabbed one of Therion’s hands, his smile lit up the room. “Really? You love me too?”

Though he was a bit uncomfortable from Alfyn’s intense gaze, there was no taking back what he said. “Yeah. I love you…” He said, the words felt a little strange coming from him.

Strange words they maybe, but they were the truth. A truth that Therion had pushed away for too long. As Alfyn brought him in for a hug, the dull feeling in his chest slowly ebbed away and was replaced with warmth instead.

Guess he didn’t need that medicine in the end.

**Author's Note:**

> How do you write angst? I wouldn't know cause I only write happy sappy shit all the time. I completely missed the biggest point of hanahaki while writing this, and that's because hanahaki is born out of UNREQUITED love. Ah, whatever. I hope that this was good, thanks for putting up with my bad writing! See you in my next fic~ 
> 
> (Oh yeah, comment ASAP if you find a disconnect somewhere in the story!)


End file.
